It's been a long road to recovery, but after years of mediocre releases, and months of delays in the development process, FreeBSD is finally back on its feet with 6.2-RELEASE. Though it is an excellent operating system, even this latest version offers few or no competitive advantages over Solaris or the other BSDs in a server role, and can never hope to compete with commercial GNU/Linux distributions for desktop computers. FreeBSD 6.2 is what FreeBSD 5.0 needed to be, and for those who have already switched to other operating systems, there are few or no compelling reasons to go back. More here.
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Member since:2006-12-07
Any Windows user that's hostile to Linux is also hostile to FreeBSD.
I don't thin that it is true. Windows people are mostly ignorant of existence of FreeBSD. Those who hear of it are mostly neutral. That reflects Microsoft's position, I guess. Some are probably hostile....
I am offering solutions based on open standards, and crossplatform tools, like LDAP, SQL, Radius, XML, Java, Python, PHP. I am trying to be platform neutral, but I am, and always will be, a UNIX person.
During last year I encountered two negative reactions. Some readers might be interested.
One was polite, but I think that intention was hostile. Customers employee told me: "If you don't mind, tell me why Linux. Is it about saving money ?".
The other was openly rude. The guy asked me how much do I earn, and couldn't I afford to buy a decent software.
Both of them assumed that I am desperate to get some cash and that I was going to accept any deal.
Both companies are running Microsoft software almost exclusively.
I had contracts with large companies running mixed software and networks, and never encountered any negative reaction to Linux or FreeBSD. I must say that I found working with such companies much easier in every aspect.
DG
Member since:2006-04-21
I don't thin that it is true. Windows people are mostly ignorant of existence of FreeBSD. Those who hear of it are mostly neutral. That reflects Microsoft's position, I guess. Some are probably hostile....
I particularly like this aspect of the "GPL lovers are commies" argument. (Maybe it's time for a "BSD-licence lovers are freeloaders" argument). How can something be good just because you haven't heard of it? Most people have heard of Iran, and I think most people in the Western world would agree that the current regime, or at least aspects of it, such as not being able to legally criticise the Ayatollah, are bad. People might look at you funny if you say you are going to live there.
OTOH, have you heard of Transnistria? If the argument that "if you haven't heard of it, it's good" is valid, then it must be a great place, because it's pretty obscure - among other reasons, because it isn't even an internationally-recognized sovereign state.
But, did you know that Trasnistria is the former USSR's only remaining truly Stalinist state? Or that its predecessor, the Privednistrian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, was recognized as an SSR neither by the authorities of Moldova (of whose country it legally forms part) or of the soon-to-be-defunct USSR?
So, what do you think of Transnistria now?
Member since:
2005-07-08
Any Windows user that's hostile to Linux is also hostile to FreeBSD. These people either resent the commoditization of mass market software or have some preconceived notions about the quality of software that is distributed without licensing fees. If there is a war, you are fighting it by using open source software, whether it be FreeBSD, Linux, or any of the thousands of other OSS products.
I've used FreeBSD in the recent past, and I think it's great. I respect your decision, and I respect the fact that your have embraced OSS in spite of the negative reactions that you might encounter in your line of work. This isn't a holy war, it's simply a choice we make. But both of us have chosen, in our own way, to be different than the mainstream, and this is a burden that we share in our dealings with the under-informed.